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Nargisi kofta is a dish from the Mughlai cuisine. This dish is popular in North India especially Uttar Pradesh. It appears that the Moghul emperors took kofta from Persia to India, serving the variation Nargisi kofta.

Nargisi kofta consist of ground meat mixture wrapped around a hard boiled egg and cooked in rich spicy saucy gravy. The name Nargis comes from the resemblance to a flower named Narcissus, a winter flower grown in India. The flower has a yellow center (the color of cooked egg yolk), surrounded by white petals resembling the cooked egg white. Hence when the Nargisi kofta is cut in four halves, resembles the flower.

Koftas, are various kinds of Middle Eastern and South Asian meatball. In simple, they consist of minced or ground meat- usually beef, chicken, turkey or lamb– mixed with spices and/or onions and formed into balls and fried. The meat is often mixed with other ingredients such as rice, burghul or vegetables to form a smooth paste. The vegetarian variety like lauki kofta (bottle gourd kofta), shahi aloo kofta (potato kofta) are popular in India. Koftas can be grilled, fried, steamed, poached, baked or marinated, and are served with a rich spicy sauce. Malai Kofta (veg. kofta) curry, a dish specially prepared for occasions and parties, is the vegetarian alternative to meatballs. It goes very well with any Indian flatbreads or Pulao.

The Nargisi kofta has two parts for preparing the dish. First making the kofta and than the sauce. You can use any variety of sauce or gravy you like for example you can use the Makhni sauce or the chicken tikka masala gravy or the normal tomato gravy. Nargisi kofta is the desi version of Scotch Egg.

Remember to coat the meat mixture evenly to form a nice shell around the egg. Don’t add too little or too much covering of meat. It should be a thin layer around the egg. Heat oil in a pan and cook on a medium flame. This is important because the eggs are fragile so the meat has to instantly brown up when added to oil to prevent breaking. The gravy can be either or thick or thin as per your taste and liking.

This dish sounds exotic and tastes delicious too! Add it to a dinner party menu and friends will think you slaved to prepare it for them. In truth, Nargisis Kofta is fairly simple to make. Do prepare it and the kids would love to eat the egg balls.

Most of us mistake to take the Nargisi kofta as a dish that has a laborious procedure to prepare, hence avoid doing so at home and enjoy it as a delicacy when we visit a restaurant. No it’s not true, watch the video and you will surely find that it is an easy dish to prepare at home. There are some tricks to making the koftas (eggs) so follow the instruction seeing the video at: http://www.vahrehvah.com/Nargisi+Kofta:3277

Enjoy making of the flowery Nargisi kofta at home and make your family happy.